It is lucky Botox patients can't frown, because users in China might after learning that GlaxoSmithKline is investigating allegations that its staff used improper tactics to market the muscle-freezing wrinkle-buster in the country.

Poor James Boswell. After a triumphant London run and subsequent tour Russell Barr, who plays the irascible lexicographer's co-star and just about everyone else was taken ill. Luckily for the audience, David Beames tied on a pinny and played the ladies while Andrew Byatt read the sidekick's role from the script.

Richard Kelly's second novel is almost cheekily ambitious. For a good two-thirds of its length, it appears to be mainly a literate contemporary thriller, set in and near London, rich in character portrait, sly social observation and convincing technical detail. Its leading characters are three successful, middle-aged doctors, old college friends and rivals, one of whom who suddenly disappears.